Sydney: A new piece of debris found by a South African holidaymaker that could be a part of the missing Malaysian flight MH370 will be sent to Australia for analysis, aviation authorities said.
Teenager Liam Lotter told local media he had found the metre-long piece of metal on a beach while on holiday in Mozambique in December, and had taken it home. It was only when news broke earlier in March of a suspected piece of the Malaysia Airlines plane was found in Mozambique that the family got in touch with authorities.
"The South African Civil Aviation Authority has arranged for the collection of the part, which will then be sent to Australia as this is the country appointed by Malaysia to identify any parts found," spokesman Kabelo Ledwaba said in a statement yesterday.
Transportation authorities in Canberra confirmed on Saturday the South African, Malaysian and Australian governments were working to bring the material to Australia. "The family have contacted the Australian Transport Safety Bureau," a spokesman from ATSB told AFP. "They have provided us with photographs which are being reviewed."
He said the debris would be examined by investigators from Australia and Malaysia and specialists from Boeing. News of the find comes just days after the two-year anniversary of the plane's mysterious disappearance on March 8, 2014.
The aircraft diverted for unknown reasons while on a routine overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew aboard. Investigators believe the plane rerouted to the southern Indian Ocean, where it crashed.
No crash site has been found. Last July a man on the French-held Indian Ocean island of Reunion found a wing fragment that experts later determined came from MH370, the only confirmed evidence of the plane's fate to be found.
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